9 replies to this topic

[jules]

Hello! Haven't been on here in a looong time.

So a company has pitched to me a link trade proposal. I want to explain it as briefly as possible here and I hope to get feedback on this.

They have three websites, all w/ less traffic than mine. Because of the difference in traffic, they agreed to linking to my site more than I'd link to their sites.

They want me to link to 2 of their websites on 60 content-appropriate pages on my site (what i mean by content appropriate: on 60 of my state pages, they want to be linked to their state pages).

In return they will link 100 times to my site, again, on content relevant pages, of their third site.

Is this a bad idea for SEO? I mean, it's all relevant, there are festivals on my state pages, and their sites deal with Bed and Breakfasts and private hotels around the country. They are trying to increase their page rank.

I just wanted to do a little research before agreeing to this trade. If you have questions, please ask. hope i made sense!!

[Jill]

Do you really love their sites? Do you want to send your own site visitors to them? Anything you link to is your endorsement of it. So as long as you're comfortable endorsing those sites and think that your site visitors will enjoy them and be glad for your recommendation, then it's fine.

[Michael Martinez]

Links are not really endorsements but they do make statements that search engines pay attention to.

If all you're getting for your links are links in return from a company that is obviously swapping links with anyone it can hornswaggle into doing that, you're going to see a negative return on your investment.

[Jill]

Links are not really endorsements

How are links not an endorsement? That's the epitome of what a link is (supposed to be).

[jules]

Thanks Jill. I can see a benefit, people who travel to festivals out of state might appreciate viewing lodging options in that area. I just worry that since we rank better and have better traffic...would that bring us "down"?

It's so many outbound links to them (they are returning the favor in greater numbers), so I wasn't sure if that looked like crappy-spammy-linkfarmy-SEO to the spiders, when really i will put a lot of human thought into 1st!!

Appreciate your thoughts.

Do you really love their sites? Do you want to send your own site visitors to them? Anything you link to is your endorsement of it. So as long as you're comfortable endorsing those sites and think that your site visitors will enjoy them and be glad for your recommendation, then it's fine.

[Jill]

so I wasn't sure if that looked like crappy-spammy-linkfarmy-SEO to the spiders

If it looks crappy spammy linkfarmy to you, then it's likely it does to the search engines. If not, then not.

[MollyHunter]

The key here is to ensure that your happy linking to them and that your happy sending them traffic. Your not going to get a lower search engine position because your linking to a site that doesn't get as much traffic as you do.

The question really is, who's getting the most out of the deal? If you are, great. If they are, well then it needs rethinking.

Links are about quality, not quantity remember.

[Michael Martinez]

How are links not an endorsement? That's the epitome of what a link is (supposed to be).

Missed this previously.

There is absolutely no support for the point of view that a link is an endorsement. That was just a bit of nonsense cooked up by Larry Page and Sergey Brin before they learned what the Web is really like. All the generally supported technical specifications for hypertextual linking lack direction for indicating sentiment.

Links are connectors, nothing more. They do not convey sentiment and hence cannot be construed as endorsements.

The United States Government specifically disclaims all links as endorsements on its Websites, and no U.S. court (or any court of which I am aware) has published an opinion or ruling stating that links between Websites constitute endorsements.

People link to Websites they disagree with all the time. People link to Websites they are unsure about all the time. Those links will never be endorsements. Hence, by nature, no link is an endorsement.

[Jill]

Okay, I see where you're coming from, and you do have some good points. Not all links are an endorsement. But still, many are

[Michael Martinez]

Okay, I see where you're coming from, and you do have some good points. Not all links are an endorsement. But still, many are

I agree with you. MANY links are endorsements. Problem is, search engines cannot tell the difference. I think Google's experiments with authorship ("rel='author'" and "rel='me'") attributes will help smooth the path toward other ways of qualifying links. "rel='nofollow'" doesn't really convey sentiment and really just takes a link out of the graph. They need to incorporate intent into the graph.